Motorcycle Diaries

In the film “Motorcycle Diaries” the filmmaker does an excellent job of portraying Che (Fuser) Guevara’s way of thinking. Che was a very kind hearted man who did not think that he was better than others just because he was a year away from being a doctor. In 1951 Che decided to post-pone his medical degree to travel around South America with his friend Alberto “Mial” Granado. During this trip they made several stops. The first stop was in Argentina where he visited his girlfriend. Before Che leaves to continue their trip his girlfriend gives him ten American dollars to buy her a swimsuit if he reaches America. During the entire trip Mial comes up with many different ways to spend this money but Fuser refuses to do so. In Chile, Guevara found himself infuriated by the working conditions of the miners in Anaconda's Chuquicamata copper mine; and moved by his overnight encounter in the Atacama Desert with a mistreated communist couple who didn't even own a blanket. Upon seeing this Che offered them his blanket and gave them the ten dollars his girlfriend had given him for her swimsuit. Later when they were on their way to Peru Che had gotten sick and Mial wanted the money to get him some real medical treatment that’s when Che told Mial that he had given it to the communist couple. Furthermore, on the way to Machu Picchu high in the Andes, he was struck by the devastating poverty of the remote rural areas, where peasant farmers worked small plots of land owned by wealthy landlords. Che meet one of the peasant farmers who explained to Che and Mial that he was kicked off his employers land where the peasant farmer lived for no reason at all. The peasant farmer told Che that he and the other farmers had to work together so that they could have a way to support their families. Later on his journey, Guevara was especially impressed by the camaraderie among those living in a Leper Colony, stating,...

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...MotorcycleDiaries and Life of Pi
Future is a mystery, is like a baby that is still in her/his mother belly, you know is there but you don't know how he/she looks like.
MotorcycleDiaries and Life of Pi teach us that there is a world out there that we don’t know about and sometimes we have to break the rules of life, family and even religion to survive and make things happen.
Someone once said "the worst things in life come for free to us". "You gotta fight for every breath and tell death to go to hell"( Guevara 35). Che and Pi went through a journey, a journey that was the beginning of great things as well bad things. But yet, they never gave up. During their journey both changed their perspective to see the world and the way to think. Che learned that not everyone can have everything they want like he did, some people needed to leave their education to work to support their family, something that Che didn't do on his teenage age. Also that sometimes people leave family, country and friend's behind to have a better future for them and family like Pi's parents did. In the case of Pi's family, they were moving looking for happiness and better future for Pi and his brother but they didn't know their future would end up as a tragedy. But they weren't alone during their journey, Che had his friend Alberto and Pi had Richard Parker, although , they were separate at the end.
Losing someone that has been...

..."The MotorcycleDiaries"
After reading this book, I learned a lot about who Che Guevara was that I never knew about him before. More than just two men traveling South America, their trip inspired Guevara to become a man he didn't expect to be. No dry history lesson or travelogue, this biography is supported with the humor of Guevara's diaries, as the 23-year-old Ernesto - a frail asthmatic who had not yet taken the nickname Che - and the slightly older Alberto set off from Buenos Aires on a beat-up 1930's motorcycle that they name "La Ponderosa" (the Mighty One). At first, their adventures are amusing, with a stop for a visit by Ernesto's disapproving socialite girlfriend, who tries to talk him out of the trip. Things get more serious after the travelers cross the border into Chile - a country they're forced to flee after Ernesto flirts with a mechanic's wife, while La Ponderosa proves unequal to the snow of the Andes - scenes which unfold in a fairly unforgettable series of images, all of which I thought were beautiful and each as different and extreme as they get. Seeing this movie allowed us to see how the land of South America is unique in each and every part.
They will travel through the Andes, along the coast of Chile, across the Atacama Desert meeting up with workers booted off their land by an American mining company, and into the Peruvian Amazon and reach Venezuela just in time for Alberto's 30th...

...Rachelle Motter
Prof. Dolores Chew
HIS-910
09 April 2010
The MotorcycleDiaries
The film MotorcycleDiaries is the biography of the early life of the communist, revolutionary Ernesto Guevara, also known as Che Guevara situated in Buenos Aires in 1952. He was a medical student, who left Argentina on a road trip with his friend Alberto Granado, a biochemist, to get to discover the rest of Latin America on an old motorcycle. The motive of their journey of several months was the desire to explore and discover new cultures and ways of living, but in the same continent. This trip was more an improvisation than well-organized and planned. Guevara’s main goal was to arrive at the tip of South America before his friend, the pilot, turned thirty. They visited Chile, Peru and Venezuela. It is clear how these characters are curious and dreamy, willing to learn new things in life.
The effectiveness of the film as a source of history of a time period was not excellent because the film just focused on Che Guevara’s beginnings. It showed how he started to opt for his political career rather than continue medicine, yet it did not go more in depth of the actual accomplishments he had. It was evident that the cruelty, injustice and tremendous poverty created a strong impact on Guevara, psychologically, emotionally and idealistically. Since then, he became a Marxist and supported Fidel Castro. Che...

...MotorcycleDiaries
Directed by Walter Salles
As most potential viewers know, this film is based on diaries and letters to home written by Ernesto "Che" Guevara during a motorcycle and foot tour of a significant portion of South America during the early 1950s, years before Guevara achieved international renown as a Communist and Latino revolutionary. Thus, the film functions as an attempt to get at the heart of the person who preceded the myth. The film is therefore difficult to judge as pure cinema. Is this, on its own merits, a great film? Or is it a great film about Che Guevara? Interestingly, the person I saw this film with knew absolutely nothing about the subject of the film before it started, and did not connect Ernesto Guevara with Che Guevara until very late in the film. Her reaction was interesting. Until she realized that it was about Che, she says that she considered it a decent but only slightly above average "road" picture, but it gained considerably in her estimation once she realized who the film was about. I think she was correct, and I would agree with those who feel that what merits the film has depends to some degree on who the film is about. If Ernesto hadn't become Che, it would be a good film but of considerably less interest than it is.
The film does a good job of rooting Che's eventual concern with the liberation of the oppressed by depicting his broad and constant encounters with...

...Any Journey includes both realities and possibilities.
-to what extent does the texts you have studied, support this idea?
Related Material ONE:
MOTORCYCLEDIARIES-
Only 23, he begins his journey as a medical student and emerges with a new perspective of South America. This perspective informs his future as a political revolutionary.
The journey, which had begun as a quest for excitement, cheap alcohol and available women, became, according to Guevara, a formative experience in his life. Following the trip he was to reject life as a doctor, a career for which he had begun training, and was to embrace life as an ardent revolutionary. It is this transformative journey, that apparently had a central influence on the direction of his life, that director, Walter Salles, has attempted to bring to the big screen.
Few main points:
* Breakdown of the motorcycle half way
* When Che was so hesitant to cross the river at the start of the movie and then near the end he same through the dangerous river with no fear or second thought, shows the mental journey he has gone through.
* When Che’s girlfriend tells him to buy her a swimming suit when they reach their destination and gave him money but at the end of the journey things turn out completely different and they use the money for another cause and they never did reach their final destination.
* Change of career path.
* Narrow minded at the beginning of the journey...

...﻿Sample response 6: The MotorcycleDiaries
Response by: Kerri-Jane Burke
The question
Discoveries often require individuals to reconsider their perspective and develop a new understanding of the world around them. Examine this statement in relation to your prescribed text and at least ONE related text.
Prescribed Text: The MotorcycleDiaries, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, 2003 (nonfiction/memoir)
Related Text: Wide Open Road, The Triffids, 1986 (music video)
Introduction opens with thesis statement, directly linking to question, introduces texts to be analysed, states their relevance to the question
Adventuring is an effective means of reviewing our understanding of the world. When we engage in different experiences, we uncover aspects of our self that lead to emotional revelations. Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s memoir The MotorcycleDiaries details his travels through Latin America with friend Alberto Granado. A mix of informative and idealistic revelations, Guevara challenges the reader to accept his changing perspective of society through personal interactions. The Triffids’ 1986 music video for Wide Open Road, written by David McComb, shows the impact of a spontaneous reaction to a broken relationship. Although the catalyst for these travels vary, both texts explore the emotional discovery possible from new experiences.
Topic sentence links to question
Prescribed text appears first with...

...of the film: “The MotorcycleDiaries”)
Life. What is it? What does it mean? Does it define our very existence? Is it the minds most dwelled upon subject? Is it not the question that every human being regardless of race, color, ethnicity or gender attempts to figure out? It is what Ernesto Guevara (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Alberto Granado (Rodrigo De la Serna) set to find out on their journey of South America in the film “The MotorcycleDiaries”. Ernesto Guevara is a young, good looking medical student from Buenos Aires, Argentina, armed with an immensely strong will, an intense desire to explore and discover, while focused on learning about and making a difference in the world around him. Alberto Granado is a relatively young biochemist, also from Buenos Aires, who is very close friends with Ernesto and his family. He is a radiant, fun loving character who although is not as good looking as his younger comrade, makes up for it with his “let’s do it at all costs” attitude and someone who shares the fundamental beliefs of expiernceing life and making a difference in the world with Ernesto. He, as well as Ernesto, leaves a tremendous impact on the viewer.
The movie directed by Walter Salles and released in 2004, begins in 1951 with the two ambitions filled thinkers, packing for their journey encompassing the entire South America. After the packing concludes and a few minor scenes pass, Ernesto waves...

...Drew Riverman
Period 4/5
Character Growth
“The enormity of our endeavor escaped us in those moments; all we could see was the dust on the road ahead and ourselves on the bike, devouring kilometers in our flight northward.”-pg.33 “The MotorcycleDiaries” is a story of a motorcycle trip made by 23-year-old medical student Che Guevera and 29-year-old biochemist Alberto Granado across the South American continent. Along the way, Che is exposed to extreme events of poverty, vulnerability, and overall suffering. Originally, Che’s only goal in life was to become a famous doctor who would help fight off the leper disease invading South America. During the course of the journey, however, Che transforms from an innocent, simple-minded young man to a knowledgeable traveler, and finally to a powerful revolutionary that has his sights set much, much higher. Here are the events that helped to trigger this transformation in Ernesto Che Guevera.
At the beginning of the journey, the only thing Che can focus on is the thought of becoming a doctor. “In the shade of the immense trees, we made plans to build a laboratory in this place, when we finished with our trip.” Keep in mind, that at this point in the journey, he wasn’t even close to crossing the border of Argentina, let alone his final destination. This is the simple-mindedness of young Che Guevera coming out. He is constantly thinking about the final result, and by doing so, he isn’t able...